German police arrested the suspect after the victim’s mother came forward (Picture: CEN)

The man accused of sexually abusing his girlfriend’s four-year-old daughter and posting images on the dark web has been pictured.

The 24-year-old, known only as Christian J, appeared at a court in the German district of Wesermarsch on Tuesday to be formally charged with serious sexual abuse and uploading and storing paedophilic images on the internet.

Christian J, a kitchen fitter and handyman, was not previously known to the police.

The young victim was rescued after police took the unusual step of releasing photos of her in an appeal, for fear that she was still being abused.

Investigators said the girl had been subjected to ‘serious sexual abuse’ between October last year and July this year.

Police took the unusual step of releasing images of the girl in a bid to track her down (Picture: EPA)

Releasing the images on Monday, Chief Prosecutor Georg Ungefuk had said: ‘This is the last measure to identify the perpetrator. We only fell back on this as all other possibilities have not led to finding out who she is.

‘We assume that the child is further exposed to the perpetrator’s access.’

Within hours the girl’s mother and grandparents had turned in the suspect, leading police to his flat in Bremen.

A search of his property uncovered even more disturbing and incriminating evidence of paedophilia and child abuse, prosecutors said.

Police led Christian J out of the court with a blanket over his head (Picture: CEN)

He has been charged with ‘serious sexual abuse’ (Picture: CEN)

This included evidence of paedophile chat rooms and a trove of indecent images of children.